


After the Apocalypse Start a Family

by Magical_Persona



Category: Left 4 Dead 2
Genre: Domestic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-27
Updated: 2016-12-29
Packaged: 2018-09-12 15:57:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9079504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magical_Persona/pseuds/Magical_Persona
Summary: This is just a short little drabble in what I think Nick and Ellis would do after the apocalypse. Mostly, I wanted and excuse to write them in a more domestic setting.





	1. Chapter 1

Nick stood, with a three-year-old on his hip, washing the dishes. It had been a year since the apocalypse ended and somehow the world was put back together enough for it to function as it did before. Of course, there were differences.

The back yard was no bigger than a sandbox and everyone had to stay inside the gates that surrounded the small city. It was the only place they were supposedly safe from the lingering infected.

Ellis was the one who worked to support their little family. Nick occasionally made a few bucks here and there, by this point most knew not to gamble with him. He had thought about getting a job, but of all the things to survive the apocalypse his criminal record was still there. He wouldn’t have done well in a stable job anyway, plus someone had to look after Rosemary.

They had taken her in at the CEDA survivor camp. Leave it to Ellis to bring a child back to the tent claiming it was theirs now. Nick had been opposed to it at first. Clearly, Ellis had no idea what it was like to care for a child and how difficult it would be to build a life with a child in tow. It was also clear that Ellis didn’t care.

Rosemary reached up to play with Nick’s slicked back hair. He grabbed her wrists and looked at her with the harshest glare he could muster.

“Did no one ever teach you not to touch a man’s hair?” He asked, his voice filled with playful anger.

The three-year-old smiled brightly, her brown eyes sparkling, as she shook her head.

“No?” Nick asked incredulously, still with that playful tone. “Well, looks my work is never done.” He said as he tickled her.

Rosemary erupted into a fit of loud giggles and Nick allowed himself to smile. He placed Rosemary on the floor and patted her head of curly brown hair.

Nick was about to speak when the front door, in the other room, opened and closed.

“I’m home!” Ellis’s voice rang through the house.

“Pa!” Rosemary shouted happily as she ran to Ellis.

“Ellis, don’t you drag oil through this house!” Nick snapped over Rosemary.

“Don’t worry, Nick,” Ellis laughed the groaned as he picked Rosemary up. He walked over to stand in the doorway of the kitchen that led to the dining room as Nick finished up the last of the dishes. “I think she likes me better.”

“You’re never home. You aren’t the one who has to tell her no,” Nick pointed out, pretending it made him angry.

Ellis smiled, placing a kiss on Nick’s cheek.

“You smell like a garage,” Nick muttered.

Not that it was Ellis’ fault. That was where he worked, fixing and maintaining CEDA vehicles. It was good money and considering Nick didn’t really have the ability to work it wasn’t bad.

“Don’t forget Ro an Coach are comin’ over for dinner,” Ellis said.

“Don’t forget?” Nick asked. “When were you going to tell me the first time?”

Ellis gave Nick an embarrassed smile. “I just did?”

“Ellis, this house isn’t ready for guests!” Man, Ellis could be so dense sometimes. “Look at it. The clothes need to be folded, the rooms need to be cleaned, and all of Rosemary’s toys need picked up!”

“Nick, we lived in worse during the zombie apocalypse,” Ellis pointed out gently, a small smile ghosting at the corners of his mouth. “They ain’t gonna mind.”

“They might not, but I do!” Nick’s voice was rising. “Do you want them to think we live in a barn?”

“This one time, my buddy Keith lived in a barn for a year,” Ellis said before he could stop himself. “It actually wasn’t that bad. He had it all dressed up nice a perddy.”

Nick sighed. “Ellis, you and Rosemary clean the living room, I’ll fold the laundry and then get dinner started. Deal?”

Ellis smiled brightly, tossing Rosemary into the air and catching her, causing the girl to start giggling again.

“Let’s go clean the living room before Daddy gets cranky,” Ellis said jokingly.

“I’m not cranky, Ellis,” Nick replied as his husband walked away. “You just need to get better at telling me who’s coming over and when.”


	2. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there really wasn't supposed to be another chapter, but someone by the name of pickles may or may not have asked questions that got me wanting to write more. So here's more!!

Ellis smiled down at the small girl in his lap. Rosemary was happily playing with her favorite doll. Nick and Ellis both agreed the thing was creepy. Almost as creepy as those zombies. Nick even compared it to one once.

Neither one of them were really sure where CEDA had found the creepy ragdoll, but Rosemary loved the thing. Ellis supposed that was all that really mattered. He looked down at Nick who was pulling things out from under the couch.

“Nick, ain’t nobody gonna look under the couch,” Ellis said, clearly amused.

“They might if they realize that’s where the weird smell is coming from,” Nick said before sitting up, sniffing the air. “Wait…I might stand corrected,” he leaned on the couch, inches from Ellis’s face. “I found the source.”

Ellis shook his head before giving Nick a quick kiss. “I think one time you said my smell was intoxicatin’.”

Nick snorted. “Was that before or after I was knocked senseless by a charger?”

Ellis couldn’t think up a reply to that one so he chose to change the subject. “What’s for dinner?”

“It was going to be supply run,” Nick started, overdramatically. “But someone forgot to mention that people were coming over and now I have to find something.”

Ellis shrugged. Nick wasn’t really upset by what had happened and he knew it. Nick just liked to complain about things that no one could fix. Nick was like those people who stubbed a toe and the world was coming to an end, but when faced with near death they showed no signs of caring or even noticing.

Nick took the trash he had managed to get out from under the couch and walked to the kitchen. Which happened to be where the only downstairs trashcan was, because for some reason none of the 4 upstairs ever made it down.

With a sigh, he began looking through the fridge. It wasn’t that they didn’t have anything to make. It was more that Nick had been looking forward to not having to cook and sitting down with Ellis and Rosemary. That wasn’t to say it wouldn’t be nice to see Rochelle and Coach again. The gang back together and all of that nonsense.

He pulled the chicken out and began prepping the food. He doubted Rochelle or Coach would complain about chicken. After all, they’d eaten much nastier things before, especially there toward the end. Nick shuddered a bit as his brain reminded him of a few particularly gross moments.

Ellis poked his head in the kitchen and smiled. “You seasoned it. Ya don’t usually do that unless your happy.”  
“It’s food, Ellis,” Nick stated plainly. Did he do that? Or was Ellis playing him? He looked into Ellis’ innocent eyes and shook his head. Was he really getting the easy to read? Maybe it had just been all the time they spent together? That had to be it. There was no way he could be that easy to read.

Ellis perked up rather suddenly and looked at the child in his arms. “I think I heard Coach pull up.”

“You know it was Coach?” Nick asked, but before he had finished completely Ellis was already speaking again.

“Of course it’s Coach,” he said, placing Rosemary on the ground. “There’s something wrong with the breaks. Plus, he’s the only one with a car. Ro don’t have one ‘cause she don’t make enough.”

Sure enough, there was a knock on the door. When Ellis opened it Coach’s loud voice could be heard throughout the house.

“Coach!” Rosemary said running up and hugging the old man.

Coach laughed, ruffling the girl’s hair. “Hi, Rosemary.” He then turned to Ellis. “Nick here?”

“Gettin’ him to leave is the hard part,” Ellis replied with a smile.

“I’ll have you know I have spent enough time outside battling the elements for a life time, Ellis,” Nick shot from the kitchen.

Coach watched Ellis’ smile widen and felt a smile creep across his face as well. Those two had made a surprisingly good life together. He was glad for the both of them. When he was first getting to know Nick, he could tell the man wasn’t a good character, but Ellis seemed to have changed that. Sure, Nick still had his rough edges, but those had been rounded almost completely.

A few minutes later, while the three men were seated around the small TV watching the news and Rosemary was playing with some of her toys Rochelle walked in.

“Sure, just walk in like you own the place,” Nick remarked, though he did offer the tiniest hint of a smile.

“She’s gotten so big,” Rochelle stated as she sat beside Rosemary. “I remember Nick was so proud when he first introduced us.”

“I was not proud,” Nick grumbled. “If I remember correctly—“

“And you’re always correct,” Rochelle retorted.

“Thank you for noticing,” Nick replied without missing a beat. “Ellis was the one who brought her into our tent claiming she was ours now. Which wasn’t true. Ellis had given her his last name. Still, Ellis being Ellis wouldn’t stop badgering me until I agreed.”

“You got attached real quick too,” Ellis pointed out. “It didn’t even take a week and he was bein’ overprotective. Plus, you was the one who wanted to find out ‘bout her.”

“I wanted to see if she had a family we could return her to,” Nick grumbled.

“She didn’t?” Rochelle asked, not having heard this part of the story before.

“She did,” Ellis said quietly. “Not one that we could return her to though. ‘Member when we saw all them bodies? Like they made them people walk to prove they was healthy then shot ‘em anyways? Her parents was in there. Turns out they took all the little kids that was still alive. Guess they wanted to make a super human or somethin’.”

“Whatever they wanted to do, they can’t anymore,” Nick said. “They’re too busy working on bigger things.”

Rochelle shook her head. “I would have hated to be the intern that got roped into that job.”

Nick shrugged. It was over now. He didn’t see any point in talking about the parts of the past that were painful. The funny ones, sure. Especially, when they were used against those in their group, but the painful ones. The ones that made you think, what if. Those ones could stay buried, locked away and never touched.

 

After dinner, Rochelle and Ellis were standing on the porch watching the fading light.

“You did good, Ellis,” Rochelle said. “I never thought you’d be able to get him to settle down like this. Start a family. The Nick that we first met wasn’t like that.”

“He was,” Ellis said quietly. “He just didn’t want no one to know it. People build walls when they get hurt. Nick happened to have a few extra defenses.”

Rochelle, not for the first time, found herself looking at Ellis and wondering how he did that. He was able to see everyone for what they could be, not what they were. It was a wonderful quality.

“I’m just surprised you got Nick to agree to marry you,” Rochelle explained. “He always struck me as the type to be afraid of getting tied down.”

“He was,” Ellis replied. “But CDEA wanted me out here to work at this garage. Since there ain’t a lot a room and resources to go movin’ people around they was only lettin’ family come with me. Well, Rosemary, like Nick said, was my family, but he wasn’t.” Ellis twirled the golden band on his finger. “So Nick woulda been left alone with CEDA. We wouldn’ta even been able ta talk regularly and he wouldn’t see Rosemary. I don’t know how he got the ring. He said he got it from a game, but I’m pretty sure he snuck out a the facility and snatched it. When we got married CEDA had to let us move together, but they weren’t happy ‘bout it. ‘Cause they wanted opposite sex couples, for repopulation an’ stuff.” Ellis managed to smile at his next thought. “That was when Nick told ‘em we was raisin’ a kid anyway so it didn’t really matter.”

Rochelle watched Ellis’ expressions. She had never known any of that, though it did make sense. Nick would do almost anything for Ellis. Within the first few months of being in such a tightly knit group you see things like that. To hear that Nick had done that surprised her, but only in the slightest.

“Between you an me,” Ellis added, smile bright. “I think they jus’ wanted Nick outta the camp. I think they was getting tired of ‘im.”


End file.
